ISLAMIC INVESTMENT? IS THERE ANY?

ISLAMIC INVESTMENT? IS THERE ANY?

Majority of so called Sharai compliant Islamic investment plans are nothing other than gimmicks for worldly gain and to mislead the innocent Muslims into haraam income. They publish attractive slogans to lure potential investors into their trap, and say:

“We are Islamic Business Group”
“Take you towards an interest free world”
“Allah has permitted business and has forbidden interest”
“Our foundation is based on Al Quran Chapter No. 2, Ayat No. 278.”
“Halal income opportunities waiting for you”
“designed to abolish RIBA from the Indian Community”
“India’s 1st HALAL Trading Platform using Islamic Financial System”
“Trusted Professional Problem Solver using Islamic Financial System”
“Profitable investment and compliant to Islamic Shariah standards”
“Join us in our effort to promote Ethical /Shariah Investments”
“Islamic investment opportunity - Shariah compliant investments”
“Principles of Shariah governing Islamic investment funds”
“First time Islamic investment in India” etc… etc…

Let alone everyone do their business, why they want to use Islam and Shariah to market their products? Let the potential customer find out whether it is haraam or halaal, because companies will speak always in their favour, no company will tell badly against their business.

Majority of investment companies are not formed in a solid foundation and paid-up capital, they can be bankrupt any given time as it happened in the case of Amanath Co-operative Bank in Bangalore, whose operations were suspended on 6 April 2013 when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided that the bank’s 272,000 depositors would be at risk if it continued operations. Now the investors are running pillar to post to get back their investment ultimately pointing their finger against Islamic Investment.

As the Islamic Investment companies are mushrooming in the net, this is the high time for the Islamic authority to take stern action against such companies; otherwise many more Amanath Bank can happen in the near future.

The so called Islamic Investment companies are mainly targeting in Gold and silver trading which is more profitable for the investors as well as for the company. Trading in Gold and Silver is permitted in Islam, let everybody do it, but let them don’t tag Islam or Shariah into their online trading in gold and silver, because always the so called Halaal Tijaarath, is not halaal always because:

(1) BUYING AND SELLING GOLD/SILVER ONLINE IS HARAAM:
Ref to the Hadith Muslim (1578) if gold sliver is buying for currency then the exchange should take place in the same sitting where the transaction is agreed upon.
Also the payment being made hand to hand. He who made an addition to it, or asked for an addition, in fact dealt in usury. The receiver and the giver are equally guilty. (Muslim 3854)

“Buying gold via the internet is not a transaction that is conducted hand to hand, because you are sending the money to them then they send that gold to you after a while. If that is the case, then buying and selling in this manner is haraam, and it is haraam for you to bring customers to this company” (Please Ref. IslamQA fatwa # 34325, 95378, 72404)
(please search all fatwas by fatwa number in this URL: http://islamqa.info/en )

(2) IT IS MUST TO TAKE THE PHYSICAL POSSESSION OF GOLD/SILVER PURCHASED ONLINE:
Similarly, if a person buys from the purchaser, it is not permissible for him to sell it until he transfers it to his house or to another place in the marketplace, because of the ahaadeeth quoted and other ahaadeeth which convey the same meaning. And Allah is the Source of strength.
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz . Fiqh wa Fataawa al-Buyoo’ by Ashraf ‘Abd al-Maqsood, 309.. (IslamQA fatwa # 39761)

There is nothing wrong with selling items bought from websites after the purchaser has taken possession of them and moved them from the seller's place. But selling them before they have been moved is not permissible. See fatwa number 69833. (IslamQA)(also refer fatwa # 150841, 182364, 169750, 40354, 126631)

(3) FALSE PROMISE:
By knowing this fact an online investment company became more generous to say that: “Investment in Physical Gold is Halal in Islam, so we enable invertors to hold it in physical form and earn a RIBA free income, we charge only Rs. 20/- per Kg. is been paid for labor charges, vault charges, safety and security etc.”

So nice of them! Just Rs. 20/- per kg? but when u approach them to have the gold physically, they will discourage you sighting the reason of Sales tax, additional VAT (value added tax), government will question the source of income, and the transaction will be projected while filing the tax return etc…

(4) THEY SAY INTEREST IS HARAAM BUT THEY PAY IT:
Another online Islamic invest company, in every paragraph in their website it says “RIBA is haraam”, came up with an interest-free wedding plan for young Indian women, that is to invest Rs. 1 Lakh with a lock-in period of minimum 5 years, after 5 years the investor will get a whopping amount of 8 Lakh for her marriage.
Investing one Lakh and getting 8 Lakh at the end of 5 years in not RIBA?

(5) STIPULATING LOCK-IN PERIOD IS UN-ISLAMIC:
The lock-in period is the other side of fixed deposit (FD), like the practice by the interest based commercial banks. What happens when a good proposal comes when the investment is still in lock-in period?

Islamic Shariah doesn’t dictate people to take marriage loan, Allah say the youngsters to get married, if they are poor Allah will enrich them out of His bounty, in Chapter # 24 verse # 32.

And the Prophet (peace be upon him) didn’t ask the Sahaabi to take a marriage loan who came forward to marry a women and said that “I could not find anything, even an iron ring” to give her as Mahar (dowry).

To read the above said hadith which Al Bukhari mentioned in his Sahih (4854) google using “hadith teach quran as dowry” as key words.

(6) HELPING THE RIBA BASED COMPANIES IS AGAINST SHARIAH:
Allah says in Quran: “Help you one another in Al Birr and At Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety); but do not help one another in sin and transgression”[al-Maida 5:2]
Here an online Islamic Investment company is hand in hand with a riba (interested) based company Bajaj Allainz, to sell their products to Muslim investors, still they are Sharai compliant?

(7) UNKNOWN MODUS OPERANDI:
In all cases it is a taboo for the investors to verify the real modus operandi of the online Islamic investment companies, are they making haraam income by depositing huge amounts in bank and taking interest? or are they involved in some other similar activities or not? The investor has no access to its administration also no access to the accounts ledger; investor has to satisfy himself with the balance sheet supplied to him at the end of the year.

Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen said: “Buying shares in companies is subject to further discussion, because we have heard that they put their money in a foreign bank, or a virtually foreign bank, and they take interest on it, and this is riba. If that is true then buying shares in them is haraam, and is a major sin, because riba is a major sin. But if it is free of that, then buying shares is halaal so long as there are no other shar’i reservations”. Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said in Majmoo’ Fataawa Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (18/195). (IslamQA fatwa # 82011)

(8) BUYING SHARES:
Some people say that we are not buying/selling, gold/silver online, only we are buying shares from the company for few Lakh Rupees and profiting on monthly basis. The company is buying gold/silver and selling the same at a time when the price goes up in the bullion market.

“Shareholder is a partner in the company based on the number of shares he holds, so he is a partner to every transaction into which the company enters, such as riba or other haraam transactions.” (Ref fatwa # 112445 IslamQA)

(9) PURCHASING CUSTOM MADE FATWAS TO BOOST BUSINESS:
Ironically it is very interesting to note that almost all such Islamic investment companies are having readymade fatwas in their website to support their claim that their investment is halal. This makes the believers confused. What one should do when he is caught up in between the truth and falsehood and unable to distinguish the fact? The answer can be find in following hadeeth:

Al-Numan ibn Basheer said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say: “What is permitted is clear and what is prohibited is clear, and between them are doubtful things which many people do not know about. Whoever avoids doubtful things will be on the safe side with regard to his religion and his honour, but whoever falls into doubtful things will fall into haraam things.” (Reported by Muslim, 2996).

REMEMBER THE FOLLOWING HADITH IS A STERN WARNING, THAT YOUR DUAA WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED IF YOU ARE EATING FROM HARAAM INCOME!

The Prophet (peace be upon him) mentioned [the case] of a man who, having journeyed far, is disheveled and dusty, and who spreads out his hands to the sky saying "O Lord! O Lord!", while his food is Haram (unlawful), his drink is Haram, his clothing is Haram, and he has been nourished with Haram, so how can [his supplication] be answered? [Narrated by Muslim # 1015.]

YOUR INCOME IS ALREADY PRESCRIBED:
How much a person will earn in his life-time is already prescribed in the Loh-al-mehfooz with Allah, if he opt to invest in uncertain Islamic Investment companies or anywhere else or if he starts a grocery shop of his own, the income is already prescribed, he cannot earn anything more or less than the prescribed limit, and he will not die until he earns the last penny prescribed in his taqdeer (destiny) the evidence in this regard is as follows:

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “The Holy Spirit (Jibreel) has inspired to me that no soul will die until it has completed its appointed term and received its provision in full, so fear Allah and do not be desperate in seeking provision, and no one of you should be tempted to seek provision by means of committing sin if it is slow in coming to him, for that which is with Allah can only be attained by obeying Him.” (Narrated by Abu Naeem in al-Hilyahfrom the hadeeth of Abu Umamah; classed as sahih by al-Albani in Sahih al-Jaami, no. 2085).

A sin may appear insignificant in the eyes of a person when before Allah it is serious, as Allah says:

“When you were propagating it with your tongues, and uttering with your mouths that whereof you had no knowledge, you counted it a little thing, while with Allah it was very great”. [Quran 24:015]

AND REMEMBER….
“… whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty).” [Quran 65:2]

"And He will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine. And whosoever puts his trust in Allah, then He will suffice him. Verily, Allah will accomplish his purpose. Indeed Allah has set a measure for all things." [Quran 65:3]

“… and whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make his matter easy for him.” [Quran 65:4]

“That is the Command of Allah, which He has sent down to you, and whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will remit his sins from him, and will enlarge his reward.” [Quran 65:5]

May Allah help us to do that which He loves and which pleases Him. May Allah open our heart to goodness and to make us steadfast in adhering to His religion until we meet Him. May he divert all evil away from us. (Aameen)